2023-08-31 19:43:41
It will soon no longer be necessary to consult a general practitioner to treat angina or cystitis. These two common pathologies, benign but whose symptoms can quickly prove to be bothersome or painful, could soon be treated directly in pharmacies. To this end, the government wishes to extend the role of pharmacies by entrusting them with the possibility of prescribing the antibiotics necessary for the treatment of these conditions. Today, the dispensing of these drugs requires a doctor’s prescription.
The measure, demanded for a long time by pharmacists, and whose announcement was made on the occasion of a trip by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to Rouen on Thursday August 31, will be proposed in the next bill of Social Security financing presented in September. Concretely, the prescriptions at the pharmacy of fosfomycin, indicated in the treatment of simple acute cystitis, and of amoxicillin, used to treat angina of bacterial origin, will be conditioned on the performance and result of a rapid test for diagnostic orientation (TROD), carried out by the pharmacist.
Reduce the social security bill
The government thus wishes to lighten some of the burden on physicians, who are faced with an overworked workload, and facilitate access to care for patients when many patients are struggling to obtain a doctor’s consultation slot in a short time. With its network of 20,000 pharmacies distributed according to a strict network throughout the territory and accessible without an appointment, the pharmacy is increasingly establishing itself as a major health relay. In addition to the delivery of drugs, its missions now extend to prevention, screening and vaccination.
The measure could prove to be a triple winner for the health system. Beyond access to care, it could make it possible to strengthen the fight against antibiotic resistance, considered a priority by the World Health Organization, by avoiding unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics thanks to a rise in carrying out rapid diagnostic orientation tests. These are today “underutilized” by doctors, notes the report on the regulation of health products published on August 29, which points out that on “6 million antibiotic prescriptions due to angina, only 2 million would be justified”.
At the same time, this could also reduce the Social Security bill, even if pharmacists will be remunerated for this act, while the government is seeking by all means to reduce health expenditure. According to a Medicare report, this measure “would represent savings of around 40 million euros in 2024, then with an increase in progressive recourse, an additional 25 million euros in 2025 and 2026”.
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#Cystitis #angina #care #pharmacies